AikiTots is a movement class to help young children become more coordinated and aware of how their bodies work. Children gain a beginning understanding of respect and how to cooperate with others. Children this age are developing very quickly, but are still very young. The class is very vigorous and fast-paced.

AikiTots is not an aikido or other type of martial arts class. We will not be teaching very young children to defend themselves through martial arts or how to hurt people. Children this age already know how to hit and kick. I really don’t see any value in teaching a 4-year-old how to hit or kick someone effectively.

Rather the class will feel like a very fun and structured play date in which your child will happily follow directions, learn new things and have a great time — not to mention get a workout.

Another fun thing — you and older siblings may participate in the class. Having family involved just makes aikido class that much more fun!

Please check out this quick video from a recent and typically high-energy, fun AikiTots class:

People get sprained ankles and other ankle injuries often. And once you have a sprained ankle or other ankle injury, chances are that you’ll injure it again and again. In fact, some researchers suggest that the recurrence rate for ankle injuries can be from 30% – 80%.

Back in the 1960’s, a doctor noticed that people who suffered an ankle injury, had really bad balance on that leg — even after the ankle didn’t hurt any more. He didn’t know why that was, but here’s a pretty big part of the answer: Proprioception. Proprioception is your sense of your body’s position in space. During aikido training, we improve our proprioception a lot. But our proprioception can get messed up through even minor injuries.

When you have an ankle injury, you suffer ligament injury and damage the neural receptors in the ligaments. These neural receptors communicate with your brain and tell it how your ankle and foot are positioned relative to the ground. When the neural receptors are injured, your brain doesn’t understand what’s going on with your foot and ankle and you can easily re-injure your ankle.

In other words, ankle injuries hurt your proprioception. You become less stable and are more likely to step wrong or fall and re-injure yourself.

A big part of regaining your proprioception and healing the neural receptors is to do balance exercises. Here are some really easy balance exercises (don’t do these until your ankle can comfortably bear your weight):

All you need is some space, a table or wall nearby to steady yourself if needed, and, maybe, a pillow.

Try to stand with solid balance on one leg for a minute. Once you can do that, cross your arms over your chest. When you’re good at that, close your eyes.

When those exercises are not a particular challenge, hop on one leg. Not a challenge? Close your eyes.

You can make balancing more difficult by standing on a pillow.

Here’s a truly great exercise: Stand on one leg while brushing your teeth. Close your eyes if that’s too easy. If that’s too easy, do some one legged knee bends while brushing your teeth.